(Edited for formatting) No book is totally life-changing IMHO, but many are life-altering… life-shifting? But for a good shift in perspective, I would maybe tr

(Edited for formatting) No book is totally life-changing IMHO, but many are life-altering… life-shifting? But for a good shift in perspective, I would maybe try the following: For fiction, best no reasons given, go into these blind: - Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler - The City and the City, China Mieville - Exhalation, Ted Chiang - Never Let me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro For non-fiction: - Any book that tells some of the history of the field you have a career in. You need it for perspective. For me it was the books Hackers by Stephen Levy (problematic as it may be) and Journey Through Genius by William Dunham. They led me into deeper dives and other books which rooted my knowledge in some chronological perspective. - Surreal Numbers by Donald Knuth, a “fiction” book about Conway’s surreal numbers. Holy cow, this shifts your perspective on what a number can be. - Godel Escher Bach by Hofstadter, recommended by others, as a mind bending book - What We See When We Read, by Peter Mendelsund. Really changed my perspective on the act of reading in general. Very easy and quick read. - Debt, by David Graeber (sure to hear about this in the comments lol) Biographical: - Read at least one book from someone who has had a different life experience than you have had. For me, it was Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain which wasn’t totally a biography but told a lot of experiences in his life completely different than mine that offered some perspective. - One anti-recommendation: any book that a CEO writes or has ghost-written about their life. None of that is applicable to your own life, even if you are a CEO. Self-help: no recommendations. Self help books only help the person selling the books IMHO. I’ve read my share, and it tells more about the person writing the book than it does give life tips about how to live one’s life.